USA 2023 : Part 2: East Coast Road Trip

12 to 17 April

We drove to Winchester, PA to stay with Clive and Cherer.

On Thursday we visited the interesting Gladstone Estate and Gallery. Beautiful gardens and gallery spaces housing large, contempory installation art pieces. 

Arterra is a boutique winery in Virginia.There are over 300 wineries in Virginia. Most are small and can't compete with larger wineries in California so winemakers need to be innovative to find their niche.  

On Friday we started with brunch at Bonny Blue before driving down to Charlottesville, PA for the weekend.

Gabriele Rauss winery is a hidden gem. Neil was happy to find they had Pet Nats and Orange wines. 

Our next stop was Blenheim Winery owned by musician Dave Matthews. He does the artwork for the labels himself. 

Charlottesville is a college town with a very pleasant pedestrianized downtown area and quite buzzy on a Friday night. 

On Saturday we visited Ragged Mountain Bourbon Distillery. We took home their mash-fed prime-rib steaks for a BBQ at the airbnb  farmhouse we rented.  

On Sunday after a lazy start, we continued our road trip to spend the night with Joan and Raymund at Lake Norman in North Carolina.

 

Then Monday we drove to Pigeon Forge, TN. This is the home of Dollywood and the tackiest theme parks and attractions in the world. We got to see a Soul Music Revue and a Magic Show with a bus load of seniors on tour! 

And then dinner; American "cuisine" at it's best at Flavortown.